ics-openvpn

PIA Android client seems to be developed from a fork of OpenVPN Client for Android (ics-openvpn) [1] which is gpl-licensed. The About screen contains a link to the source code hosted on an S3 bucket [2] but it doesn't seem to be publicly accessible. Interestingly, despite being gpl-licensed, ics-openvpn seem to be commonly forked by commercial vpn companies to develop their own closed-sourced Android vpn client. The author is aware of this and post a faq [3] out of frustration. [1] https://github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn [2] https://s3.amazonaws.com/privateinternetaccess/sources/andro... [3] https://github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn/blob/master/doc/READM...

With root access, you can change the server Android uses for checking internet connectivity: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/134963/change-th... To override the default Google DNS, Cloudflare offers an app for their 1.1.1.1 DNS service. You can also use the VPN of your choice to override the default DNS server. Firefox for Android users have the additional option of setting the DNS over HTTPS server used in the browser. https://1.1.1.1 https://github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn https://www.ghacks.net/2018/04/02/configure-dns-over-https-i... In the developer options of the Settings app on LineageOS, you can enable "Kill app back button" which kills the foreground app when you long-press the back button. There are also 2 free and open source apps (requiring root access) that may be of interest to you: OS Monitor is a task manager th

Your best option? Pick a provider that uses OpenVPN (or roll your own) and use the open source OpenVPN for Android application => https://github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn. Done.